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In the case of Brechthold Streeruwitz, the expressionist painter and poet, it was a friendship across disciplines between a painter in New York and a writer in Vienna. The painter, Mark Beard, wanted to create large and threatening expressionist canvases with scenes from the Habsburg Monarchy and World War 1. At the same time, the writer, Marlene Streeruwitz, wanted to have an artist in the family. So, on a lazy summer morning in 2000 in Vienna, Brechthold Streeruwitz was invented. He was given a body of work and a collection of poems by Beard in New York. In Vienna, Marlene Streeruwitz crafted a beautifully involved family tree and wrote a novel about Brechthold's descendants in London and Vienna.

On Tuesday, November 27, New York University’s Deutsches Haus will celebrate the making of art via the invention of an artist and a family member in a truly interdisciplinary collaboration between art, literature, and music. Starting at 6:30 p.m., this will be a presentation of postmodernism at its lightest and, at the same time, most profound. Not only will one discover how to establish an artistic aura, but one will also learn how to become one's own great aunt and how to turn your friend into a cousin, three generations back, to whom you were married, but whom you, after a short stay in Paris, divorced.

The evening of literature, music, poetry and painting will include Mark Beard, a New Yorker whose portraits, nudes, bronzes, handcrafted books, and set designs have been shown worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art; Gerald Busby, a composer best known for his film score for Robert Altman’s 3 Women, his dance score for Paul Taylor’s Runes, and his opera with Craig Lucas, Orpheus in Love; Adam Tendler, “an exuberantly expressive pianist” who “vividly displays his enthusiasm for every phrase” (Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times); and Melissa Collom, a mezzo-soprano who has appeared on some of the most celebrated stages of the U.S.

Events at Deutsches Haus (42 Washington Mews; deutches.haus@nyu.edu) are free of charge. Please let us know which event you would like to attend by sending an email to deutscheshaus.rsvp@nyu.edu. Space at Deutsches Haus is limited; please arrive 10 minutes prior to the event. Tel. 212.998.8660.